Editorial

In this editorial to the second Issue of volume 10 (2014), we provide insight into the Journal’s statistics of 2013, announce several interesting Special Issues coming up in 2014 and 2015 and provide a short overview of the papers that make up Issue 10(2). In the previous editorial, we presented several new Editorial Board members of the International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management (IJBESM). We are happy to announce that John Parrotta (US Forest Service) has recently agreed to join the team of Associate Editors. Previously, he was already active as a member of our Editorial Board. He specializes in biodiversity and climate-change mitigation, medicinal plants, forest management, traditional knowledge and forests and human health. In addition, Antonio Lara (Universidad Austral de Chile) has agreed to join the Editorial Board. Antonio Lara specializes in ecological restoration, temperate forests, forest ecology and conservation. Finally, Matthias Schröter (PhD student at Wageningen University) has kindly agreed to join Alexander van Oudenhoven as managing editor, to handle the increasing number of submissions and Special Issues. He specializes in spatial modelling of ecosystem services and also studies conceptual and methodological aspects of ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation.

IJBESM in 2013

We are happy to announce that most statistics for 2013 indicate the Journal is on the rise in terms of subscriptions, downloads, citations and article submissions. The number of institutional and library subscriptions went up by 13%, compared to the previous 3 years. Subscriptions have been requested from all over the world but most from Europe, North America and Asia. As of the end of 2013, the number of full-text downloads had increased by 32% compared to 2012 and tripled compared to 2011. Especially institutions from The Netherlands, China, Australia, Colombia and India have frequently downloaded papers. The most frequently cited papers deal with mapping and modelling of ecosystem services (e.g. Guerry et al. 2012; Martínez-Harms & Balvanera 2012) and landscape planning and management (e.g. Busch et al. 2011; Geneletti 2011; von Haaren & Albert 2011). More importantly, our papers are being picked up and cited increasingly by authors submitting to excellent other journals, such as Ecological Indicators, Ecosystem Services, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Ecology and Society and Journal of Environmental Management. IJBESM is currently not ISI-listed, but looking at citations to the Journal in 2013 in relation to articles published in 2011 and 2012, it would have a ‘mock impact factor’ of 1.07. This is an excellent result and we hope to be able to apply for ISI-rating soon.

Another reason why the Journal is on the rise relates to the quick turnaround time and variety of submitting authors. Close to 80% of all authors receive their first decision within 90 days, with the vast majority actually receiving the decision within 30 days. The number of days between submission and final acceptance is of course highly variable, but a clear peak can be seen between 90 and 120 days. Authors that submit to our Journal work in many different countries and most submissions in 2013 have come from India, Australia, US, Germany and Italy. In addition, papers from over 40 other different countries have been submitted. Last but not least, the author survey (N = 34) yielded positive results as well. ‘Satisfaction with the refereeing process’ scored 9/10 and authors were furthermore satisfied with the speed of review (8/10), the final article (10/10) and overall experience of publishing an article (9/10). We thank the anonymous authors who participated in the survey.

Special issues planned for 2014–2015

Several interesting Special Issues have been planned on a variety of topics. In the autumn of 2014, we will be publishing an Issue on ‘Ecosystem Services of Wetlands’, featuring papers presented during workshops and symposia at the 2012 ECOSUMMIT (http://www.ecosummit2012.org/). The Issue will be edited by William (Bill) J. Mitsch (Everglades Wetland Research Park, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Ohio State University, USA) and fellow editors Maria Hernandez (Institute of Ecology, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico) and Blanca Bernal (Everglades Wetland Research Park, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA). Papers will deal with ecosystem services such as carbon storage and coastal protection provided by wetlands, as well as effects of restoration and land use on wetland ecology and functions.

Late 2014, early 2015 will be the publication date of a Special Issue entitled ‘Ecosystem services: building informed policies to orient landscape dynamics’. It will feature papers presented at the symposia Ecosystem Services: Building Informed Policies to orient Landscape Dynamics and Land-system change impacts on European landscapes. The symposia were organized by Elena Gissi (University Iuav of Venice, Italy), Benjamin Burkhard (University of Kiel, Germany) and Peter Verburg (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands) at the 2013 IALE European Congress ‘Changing European Landscapes. Landscape Ecology Local to Global’ in Manchester in September 2013. Elena Gissi, Benjamin Burkhard and Peter Verburg will be guest editors of the Special Issue. The focus of this Issue is on ecosystem services as a tool to support and inform decisions in landscape-related policies and planning. It will consider methodologies for the identification of ecosystem-service beneficiaries and providers, investigating interrelationships between landscape structure, ecosystem functions, services and human benefits. Ecosystem-service potentials and resilience to change will be addressed in the context of landscape dynamics. Central to the issue is the so-called ‘land-system science’, which studies how land use and management can be framed in relation to policy and societal dynamics. Land systems represent the terrestrial component of the Earth system and encompass all processes and activities related to the human use of land (Verburg et al. 2013). These processes and activities include investments, technological advancement, organisational arrangements, as well as the benefits gained from and unintended social and ecological outcomes of societal activities (Erb et al. 2013; Verburg et al. 2013). Just like ecosystem-service science, land-system science operates at the interface of the social and natural sciences, as it studies the interplay between human–environment systems that together determine land use and shape land cover. Land-system science has evolved from the study of land-use and land-cover change, and takes a systems perspective on the social and ecological aspects of land use rather than just monitoring consequences of land-cover change (Verburg et al. 2013). At the time of publication of Issue 10(2), the option to submit to the Special Issue has expired.

We are furthermore expecting two to three Special Issues as outputs of two important conferences to be held later in 2014. The Ecosystem Services Partnership will hold its seventh International Conference in Costa Rica, 8–12 September 2014 (www.espconference.org) entitled ‘Local action for the Common Good’ to emphasise the focus on community-based ecosystem management. This Journal will facilitate the publication of a Special Issue, edited by Editorial Board member Edmundo Barrios, on agroforestry as a multifunction land-use system to conserve and manage biodiversity. Biodiversity-rich agroforestry systems underpin the provision of multiple ecosystem services at different scales (e.g. pollination, biological pest control, soil fertility, C sequestration and soil erosion control). In addition, the International Union of Forest Research Organization (IUFRO) will hold its 14th Global Congress (http://iufro2014.com/) in Salt Lake City (US), 5–11 October 2014. This journal will host Issues on topics such as biodiversity in support of timber production, forest ecosystem services contributing to agriculture, value of traditional knowledge for sustainable forest management and wildlife conservation in relation to participatory protected areas management.

The International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management will furthermore publish thematic papers on the application of landscape ecology concepts in policies and practices to landscapes worldwide. These thematic papers will be included frequently in upcoming regular Issues and are contributions from members of the European Land-use Institute (ELI) and its associated RegioResources (RR) 21-2013 conference ‘A cross-disciplinary dialogue on future perspectives for a sustainable development of regional resources’. ELI is a cooperation of 70 partners in 21 European and non-European countries and in July 2012 ELI became the European Nodal Office of the Global Land Project with a focus on land management, land use planning and land use policies (http://european-nodaloffice.eli-web.com/). In particular, ELI supports a socio-ecological system approach that integrates landscape-related research and approaches from multiple disciplines to create a platform for applied land system research; identifies needs of research and development of tools aiming at simulating natural and anthropogenic processes on the landscape scale; supports application and development of tools (models, indicators) for integrated land management and decision support; and analyses and integrates needs and initiatives of stakeholders and thus support participative approaches.

This Issue

Six research papers are presented in this Issue that describe studies in Benin, India, Costa Rica, Kenya and Thailand. This Issue also features a review paper on climate-change mitigation in Australia with the help of ecosystem services.

Idohou et al. (this Issue, 2014) studied how home gardens in Benin could contribute to biodiversity conservation. The authors conducted a combination of interviews, measurements and observations to establish links between ecological importance and use value, local knowledge of species across phytochorological zones, etc. Similar to earlier work published in this Journal (e.g. Chowdhury et al. 2009; Muhammed et al. 2011), Idohou et al. (2014) found that use of resources such as medicinal plants and food can go hand in hand with local biodiversity conservation. However, because home gardens are currently not mainstreamed in conservation policies, most home gardens are unlikely to be preserved. Dhanya et al. (this Issue, 2014) studied to what extent native trees contribute to different ecosystem services provided by agroforestry systems in India. The authors conducted research in coffee-based systems in tropical humid zones and dry land agro-ecosystems. Regardless of differences in location, management and scope of the systems, it was found that agroforestry systems with native trees provide more direct and indirect benefits, which are furthermore rated more highly by local stakeholders. The role and biodiversity aspects of agroforestry systems has been described earlier in this Journal (e.g. Sunil et al. 2011; Nandy & Kumar Das 2013), but few studies have focused on the question whether native or exotic tree species contribute differently to ecosystem service provision.

Furthermore in this Issue, Alamgir et al. (2014) provide a review of ecosystem services research in Australia in relation to climate change and its impact. Ecosystem-services research has increased considerably since the early 2000s, and examples can be found of ecosystem services being strongly embedded in local management and regional planning in Australia (Maynard et al. 2011; Plant & Ryan 2013). However, Alamgir et al. (2014) reveal that the impacts of climate change on ecosystem services are poorly understood and not prioritized in Australian policy. The review furthermore highlights the need for considering climate change, ecosystem and ecosystem-service specific adaptions in sustainable ecosystem-service management. Several timely recommendations for future ecosystem services research can be distilled from the review, which hopefully contribute to a better future of a country that is extremely vulnerable to climate-change impacts.

A paper by Banks et al. (2014) investigates how natural vegetation can be managed to stimulate crop pollination and pest control in Costa Rican coffee farms. Both pollinators and parasitoid wasps in agro-ecosystems often rely on non-crop habitats, such as hedgerows and adjacent forests, for supplemental resources and shelter (Kremen et al. 2002; Ricketts et al. 2008). Banks et al. (2014) conducted a 3-year-long study, comparing Hymenoptera abundance around isolated and not-isolated (i.e. bordering forests) coffee farms. They observed higher numbers of Hymenoptera adjacent farms compared to isolated farms, but only during dry seasons, which underlines the important role of seasonality for ecosystem service provision that underlines crop production.

Soil erosion prevention is another service that supports crop production, and Kauffman et al. (2014) assessed the effect of 11 soil conservation measures on soil erosion and several other ecosystem services in Kenya. The authors consider food production, water availability and energy production as directly dependent on soil erosion (prevention), and use ‘green water’ as the concept to express the effects of soil conservation measures on these three ‘services’. Green water is defined as soil water available for evaporation and transpiration, and Kauffman et al. (2014) indicate that all services can be improved through cost-effective conservation measures. However, the implementation of soil conservation management requires substantial investments, and the authors highlight the need for institutional studies to investigate how a ‘Green Water Credits’ programme could be set up and implemented.

In two linked research papers, Maneepitak and Cochard (2014) and Cochard et al. (2014) describe, respectively, the environmental impacts and toxicity of synthetic and natural pesticides in rice fields and their effects on aquatic faunal abundance and diversity. This is a new topic for our Journal; the management and production of rice fields have, for example, been described in Ayanu et al. (2011) and Spangenberg et al. (2014), but the extent of pesticides and the effects thereof have not been published before. The researchers studied 40 conventionally (mostly synthetic pesticides) and 31 organically managed farms (mostly natural pesticides). Maneepitak and Cochard (2014) provide an extensive overview of herbicide, insecticide and molluscicide use, and relate these uses to soil organic carbon, toxicity and other factors. In addition, Cochard et al. (2014) investigated effects of these pesticides on plankton, aquatic macro-invertebrates, fishes and waterfowl. Fishes and waterfowl were less abundant when synthetic insecticides and herbicides were applied, but phytoplankton reduced when exposed to both natural and synthetic insecticides. Several other non-trivial effects are described in Cochard et al. (2014), and together with Maneepitak and Cochard (2014) they offer an extensive overview of findings that could be of interest to agro-ecologists, medical entomologists and conservation biologists.

Alexander P.E. van Oudenhoven (Managing Editor) and Rudolf S. de Groot (Editor in Chief)

Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

[email protected]